If you are a fan of shifter romances, Cate C. Well’s The Five Packs series is a very solid and entertaining read. I admit to reading them all over a span of two days. I previously reviewed the first installment in this series, The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate, and it convinced me to read the rest of the series. Prepare yourself to run through the gamut of emotions! My detailed thoughts on each novel below.
Trigger Warning: These novels contain mentions and/or depictions of sexual abuse, violence, child abuse and bullying.
The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells (Five Packs, 1)
Verdict: RECOMMENDED, BUT. . . (male lead’s asshole-ishness really grated at times)
Publication: November 12, 2021
Subgenres: Paranormal Romance, Werewolf/Shifter Romance
Tropes/Themes: Rejected mates, fated mates, alpha hero, disabled heroine, groveling for forgiveness, and pregnancy.
Thoughts:
Una Hayes is a low-ranking and unmated female of the Quarry Pack. She has a damaged leg and is working towards building her “farmers market” business with other low-ranking females of the pack.
Killian Kelly is the ruthless alpha of the Quarry Pack. He has worked hard towards modernizing the pack’s outdated and unmerciless ways. When Una’s wolf publicly recognizes Killian as her mate (much to her chagrin), Killian rejects her in a cruel and humiliating manner.
Killian is a polarizing “hero” and very much an alpha-hole at the outset of the novel. He eventually comes to realize his error in rejecting Una. We then learn about Killian’s past secret efforts towards ensuring that low-ranking/unmated females of the Quarry Pack were protected.
Despite Killian’s extensive groveling and good deeds, some readers (aka ME) may still be left unsatisfied and hurt by his previous actions towards Una. (SPOILER: I’m still salty over Killian letting another female sit on his lap and gyrate all over him after learning Una is his mate (presumably to teach Una a lesson that she was most definitely not his mate. Like a-hole, go die).
While the sex scenes are raunchy, they are few and on the shorter side The true erotic nature of this novel is in the foreplay. It is in the “wanting and not taking” moments between Killian and Una.
IMHO, the big secret reveal does not make much sense but is just there to add dramatic effect. SPOILER: Killian actually learned he was Una’s mate when he was nine years old (on the day he saved her from the attack that injured her leg. At the urging of one of the pack’s witchy elders, Killian drank a magic tea to forget about the mating bond so that he could focus on becoming alpha and changing the pack to be a safer place for Una. He couldn’t do this while knowing Una was his mate? Come on…
The characters get their happily ever after but the bonus epilogue (obtained by subcribing to author’s newsletter) is the true happy ending!
The Heir Apparent’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells (Five Packs, 2)
Verdict: RECOMMENDED
Publication: April 22, 2022
Subgenres: Paranormal Romance, Werewolf/Shifter Romance
Tropes/Themes: Rejected mates, fated mates, alpha hero, rich hero/poor heroine, curvy heroine, groveling for forgiveness, and teenage pregnancy.
Thoughts:
Rosie Kemble is an eighteen-year-old scavenger shifter of the Moon Lake Pack. This means she is an unranked shifter in the hierarchy obsessed Moon Lake Pack.
Cadoc Collins is the future alpha of the Moon Lake Pack. Due to the political pressures and expectations of his role and from his pack, he rejects Rosie as his mate. However, he finds himself unable to follow through on that rejection.
Despite Cadoc’s rejection, Cadoc and Rosie have one steamy night together to keep Rosie’s heat and Cadoc’s rut under control. This night results in Rosie becoming pregnant. Realizing that the Moon Lake Pack’s higher-ups might take her child away from her, Rosie runs away. To no one’s suprise, he does go after her.
The Heir Apparent’s Rejected Mate was a treat of a shifter romance. Cadoc makes mistakes but not unforgivable ones. I found myself was giggling and blushing like a schoolgirl when Cadoc gives it ALL up to go after Rosie and start their own pack.
That said, I did find it hard to suspend reality sometimes and believe that a nineteen-year-old Cadoc was just so… capable. He manages his own multi-million dollar VC fund? COME ON. That said, f*ck it. This is romance baby.
If this novel had had a few more sex scenes or longer (or more adventurous) ones at least, my rating would have been four stars.
The Lone Wolf’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells (Book, 3)
Verdict: RECOMMENDED
Publication: December 26, 2022
Subgenres: Paranormal Romance, Werewolf/Shifter Romance
Tropes/Themes: Rejected mates, fated mates, alpha hero, lone wolf, age gap, polar opposites, and pregnancy.
Thoughts:
Mari Fane is a young low-ranking unmated female of the Quarry Pack. She is sweet and girly, and has grown up dreaming about having her own family one day.
Darragh Ryan is a tortured lone wolf that was previously a member of the Quarry Pack. He lives in the wilderness so that his crazed wolf can’t harm anyone.
When Mari and Darragh recognize each other as mates, Darragh rejects the bond by simply ignoring it. He believes himself to be too old, tainted and dangerous for Mari. However, he find himself unable to completely shut her out.
Out of all The Five Packs series books, The Lone Wolf’s Rejected Mate had the sweetest male lead and romance. Everything that Darragh does is for Mari’s benefit. His main flaw is his inability to communicate with Mari properly. When he builds her a whole ass house? I pretty much lost my sh*t.
Like the first two installments of the The Five Packs series, the sex scenes are explicit but on the sparse and shorter side.
His Curvy Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells (Five Packs, 4)
Verdict: NOT RECOMMENDED
Publication: April 17, 2023
Subgenres: Paranormal Romance, Werewolf/Shifter Romance
Tropes/Themes: Rejected mates, fated mates, alpha hero, cruel hero, fat/curvy heroine, groveling for forgiveness, and pregnancy.
Thoughts:
Flora is at the very bottom of the Salt Mountain Pack hierarchy. She is bullied terribly by her pack for being curvy/fat and has been hooking up with Alec (a potential future alpha of the pack) since they were juniors in high school.
Alec is the ultimate alpha-hole. He is good-looking, popular, arrogant, but secretly doubtful of whether he actually wants to be alpha to the Salt Mountain Pack. He has treated Flora abominably for years. He hooks up with her in secret (where only he receives oral sex but gives nothing in return) and leaves without a kind word each time. When he and Flora recognize that they are mates, he fails to defend her from the pack’s ridicule and instead adds to her humiliation with a retort that is beyond dehumanizing.
When Flora decides to secretly leave the Salt Mountain Pack in secret to join the Old Den pack, Alec (who is now feeling guilty) chases after her and commences his road to redemption. As a reader, it was TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. While Alec’s later actions are noble, the hurt he has imparted is beyond repair (imho). I found myself beyond annoyed when Flora finally forgave him. Like f*ck this guy!
Readers better have tough skin when reading the many scenes in which Flora is being fatshamed by her pack. The author really takes it there and it makes you feel like you have a rock in your stomach each time. Indeed, one of the criticisms that His Curvy Rejected Mate has received is that the fatshaming is taken too far.
Although this book left me heavily displeased with the main male character, it was also the book with the better steamy sex scenes of the series. Go figure!
Ultimately, it is up to each reader to decide whether they can forgive Alec or not. In an Instagram DM I sent to the author regarding my negative thoughts on Alec (yes, I went there…), she confirmed that Alec is an alpha-hole “had to learn”. I’m just not sure the lesson was long enough!